Firefighters ditch ambulance to rescue patient on icy road

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. - Firefighters in suburban St. Louis gave up on using an ambulance after roads became dangerously icy and instead used a stretcher to walk a patient about a mile to a hospital.

KSDK-TV reports that Maryland Heights Firefighter Shaylor Taetz rushed to Interstate 270 with his partner Sunday after a bus spun around on the freeway. Taetz says they'd almost reached the bus when their ambulance slid on the ice and hit a guardrail.

But the firefighters got to the bus, and the driver was the only person on board. They put the woman on a stretcher, covered her up to keep the sleet off her, and walked her about a mile (about 1.6 kilometres) to a hospital as traffic went around them. One passer-by captured a picture of the effort.